Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
May 22, 1992
Governor Clinton, campaigning at a shipyard in San Diego on May 18, mentioned our favorite issue in public, apparently for the first time. He said defense program cuts should be dedicated to public works investments, including high-speed rail. His campaign staff told the Wall Street Journal that Clinton favors spending up to $1.5 billion in the next five years on five high-speed corridors. The Ho...
May 15, 1992
A milestone in NARP's history is approaching. Twenty-five years ago, on May 18, 1967, in Chicago, NARP was founded and incorporated by Anthony Haswell. To consider what good NARP may have done in that quarter-century, perhaps one ought to consider what passenger transportation in this country would look like had NARP not been founded. How many trains would be left? Would people be as aware of the...
May 8, 1992
As mentioned last week, Amtrak will make service cuts on the Northeast Corridor beginning May 18. On Saturdays, seven afternoon and evening round trips will be cut and on Sundays, train 155 will not operate. New York-Albany loses five round-trips per week; the eastbound Lake Shore Limited will handle all local travel, including a new Rhinecliff stop; the westbound Mohawk runs unreserved through Oc...
May 1, 1992
Train 94, the northbound Colonial, struck a loaded dump truck at a grade crossing and derailed the morning of April 29 shortly after departing Newport News, Va., killing the truck's driver. Of the 92 passengers on board, 53 were injured and six were kept in the hospital overnight. The locomotive slid down a steep embankment on its side. The first two coaches, which were empty, jackknifed but remai...
April 24, 1992
The Senate version of the Amtrak reauthorization bill, S.2608, was introduced April 8 and has the following co-sponsors -- Exon (Neb.), Hollings (S.C.), Kasten (Wis.), Burns (Mont.), Lott (Miss.), Adams (Wash.), Simon (Ill.), and Bradley (N.J.). One novel feature of the bill is its call for a consumer representative on the Amtrak board, who would have to be a NARP member and travel at least 5,000...